lOO 
The Naturalist in La Plata. 
to flvj it is because the impression produced in its senses by the 
approaching man entails, through an incipiently reflex action, a 
partial excitement of all those nerves which in its ancestors had 
been excited under the like conditions ; that this partial excitement 
has its accompanying painful consciousness, and that the vague 
painful consciousness thus arising constitutes emotion proper — 
emotion undecomposcible into specific experiences, and, therefore, 
seemingly homogeneous (Essays, vol. i. p. 320.) 
It is comforting to know that the “ unavoidable inference ’’ is, 
after all, erroneous, and that the nervous system in birds has not 
yet been organically altered as a result of man’s persecution ; for 
in that case it would take long to undo the mischief, and we 
should be indeed far from that better friendship ” with the 
children of the air which many of us would like to see. 
